


Organ-Stop

by Menya_Savut



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Friendship, Multi, Nightmares, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Kissing, Queerplatonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 05:36:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4865030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menya_Savut/pseuds/Menya_Savut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annabeth contemplates friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Organ-Stop

The first time Annabeth really thinks about Jason and Percy’s friendship is at around 4:30 in the morning after one of her watch shifts.

She’d seen Percy earlier that night, just after 1 AM, when she relieved him of his watch shift. She’d walked up the stairs to the main deck and had seen Percy leaning serenely against the side rail, looking out over the ocean. He turned to her, smiled dopily, and promptly collapsed on top of her. This wasn’t alarming, though, as Percy simply hugged her close and nuzzled his face into her shoulder.

“Percy,” Annabeth said patiently, “go to bed. I have to stay up here to do the watch.”

Percy mumbled something incoherent and didn’t move.

“If you want to cuddle, go cuddle with Jason,” Annabeth teased fondly. The two had struck up an easy friendship after meeting and were often overly affectionate. Everyone teasted them about their bromance.

Percy finally made eye contact with her, if a bit blearily, and said what was probably supposed to be “Okay, I love you”, but sounded more like he was trying to talk and swallow bubbles at the same time. He obligingly let go of Annabeth and made his way down the stairs. Annabeth settled in for her shift and focused her mind on spotting dangers, leaving thoughts of Percy behind.

 

_Jason was a trained warrior, and so even in sleep he was aware that footsteps were approaching his room. He didn’t fully wake, however, until he heard a knock on his doorframe (he had left his door open to let the cool air in the ship circulate). He opened his eyes drowsily and blinked when he noticed the person knocking was Percy._

_“Percy? Did Annabeth just send you down from your shift?” Jason asked, trying to bully his mind into consciousness._

_Percy nodded._

_Through the haze of recent sleep, Jason tried to figure out what Percy was doing here. “Is something the matter?”_

_He shook his head._

_Jason considered him. Percy looked woozy and tired. “Do you want to sleep with me?” he asked kindly, a little confused._

_Percy nodded again. Jason smiled, surprised he’d guessed right, and scooted back against the wall, giving Percy room on one side of the bed. Percy obligingly shuffled over and got under the covers, facing Jason._

_“Go to sleep,” Jason said, and Percy dutifully closed his eyes. Jason smiled again, wondering what was going on in Percy’s mind, and reached over, rubbing Percy’s back with his knuckles. Percy’s face sank deeper into the pillow, and his breathing evened out._

Annabeth thought she ought to check on Percy once her shift was over. She hadn’t heard a thump, but she knew it was completely possible for Percy to have simply fallen asleep halfway to his room. She thankfully didn’t find him passed out in the hallway, but when she reached his room he wasn’t there either. Squashing down a niggling tendril of panic, Annabeth started wandering down the hallway and passing the others’ rooms, when she noticed Jason’s door was open and glanced inside.

Jason was awake, and Percy was asleep. He was restless, snuffling in his sleep, one hand clutching Jason’s shirt. Jason glanced up at Annabeth, and said, “I think he’s having a nightmare.”

He was soothingly rubbing Percy’s arms and stroking his hair. The two were wise enough not to wake Percy though; demigod nightmares were unstable and held important information. It was best not to interrupt.

“How did he get here?” Annabeth asked.

“I think he came by just after his shift. I wasn’t sure what he wanted, but when I offered to let him stay he accepted.”

Annabeth watched as Jason rubbed gentle fingers across the back of the hand that Percy had attached to his shirt. Percy’s hand clenched tighter, then slackened a bit. The room was silent for a few moments.

“Can you give him a kiss?”

Annabeth started, caught off guard by Jason’s question. “…Okay,” she said.

As she crossed the room, she realized that Jason had asked her because she was his girlfriend and had more right to kiss him. She knelt by the bed.

If she weren’t here, Jason would be doing this.

Annabeth carded her hand through Percy’s hair and dropped a kiss onto his temple. Percy quieted slightly, and with Jason’s coaxing, finally lay still.

He might have been doing this, before Annabeth had stumbled upon them.

Annabeth supposed she should be uncomfortable with the idea that Jason might be kissing her boyfriend, however innocently. But for some reason, it didn’t seem that strange. She gazed down at Percy’s calm face. “Goodnight, Seaweed Brain.”

Jason gave her a weary smile and closed his eyes.

 

Thoughts of Percy and Jason would have been rolling around Annabeth’s head, but every day brought some sort of threat on their lives, and she found she didn’t have much time to ponder their relationship.

They docked one evening, and Percy decided to jump overboard and talk with the shellfish to see if he could get any information. He promised he’d be gone maybe half an hour tops, so 9:30 found the group sitting on the deck chatting, braziers lit, with Coach Hedge monitoring the controls and muttering threats to invisible sea monsters under his breath. Annabeth hadn’t joined them yet, though, because she was in the boiler room doing research on Daedalus’s laptop.

The group was surprised, therefore, when Blackjack landed heavily on deck, Percy in tow. Percy was covered in mud, one strap of his backpack torn off, and crying hard. He slid off Blackjack, bare feet hitting the deck, dropped the backpack, and went straight to Jason, hugging him around the neck and sobbing into his shirt.

Everyone was shouting, “Percy! What happened?” but Percy wasn’t paying attention to anyone. “Are you hurt?” Jason asked firmly, and Percy shook his head no, not moving from his position. Everyone relaxed a bit at that, and Jason carefully moved Percy’s head away from his shoulder.

“Are you just scared?” he asked.

Percy nodded, and went back to hugging Jason. Blackjack trotted serenely over the deck, apparently having a conversation with Coach Hedge, so everyone else inferred that they were in no immediate danger. Jason was slightly amused by the way Percy was acting, but he hugged him back and shushed him all the same.

By this time Annabeth had appeared on deck. “Percy?” she asked worriedly. She made her way over to Jason and rubbed Percy’s back along with him.

“He hasn’t told us what happened, but he’s not hurt and we don’t seem to be in immediate danger,” Jason said while Percy turned to look at Annabeth. Piper grabbed some towels, and Jason started trying to get the mud off Percy.

“What happened, Percy?” Hazel asked, when Percy seemed to be calming down.

“Nereids…industrial food processor…suffocating,” Percy mumbled. Everyone stared at him blankly, but Hazel seemed to come to some realization, and glanced at Frank, who seemed to have as well. Hazel quickly filled them in about Alaska and the muskeg, and Frank added his observations from the aquarium. Jason coaxed Percy into unburying his face so he could clean the mud off.

“Hush, Percy, they were just trying to scare you,” Jason said, using the towel to remove some mud over Percy’s eyebrow. “You escaped. Everything’s fine now.”

“They _succeeded_ in scaring me,” Percy said sullenly, curling up again, and Jason chuckled. Annabeth watched Jason as Percy turned toward her and took her hand. This time, she _hadn’t_ been there, and Jason had stepped up for her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but Percy had stopped crying and was trying to give her a weak smile.

“Jason’s right,” she said. “You’re back with us.”

 

Throughout the quest, Annabeth had been growing closer to Piper. It wasn’t as if they had some life-changing moment together and were now forever connected, but having your boyfriends be practically dating each other can really speed up a friendship. Annabeth and Piper often caught each other’s eyes while Percy and Jason were goofing off, as if to say, _Do you see this too? Our boyfriends are weirdos._ Neither of them really worried about it, though, what with trying to stay alive and all. Annabeth was just glad that everyone was surviving.

After their quest ended, the exhausted teens agreed to meet up in Queens, near Percy’s apartment. The seven of them (armed, but without Nico since he’d disappeared again, but Annabeth suspected Reyna kidnapped him for all-intensive bonding time) decided to stop by an ice cream truck during their wanderings, and sat at a picnic table while they enjoyed their purchases. Annabeth was sitting across from Percy, and watched while he and Jason teased each other. She smirked at Piper, who was sitting beside her, as if to say, _They’re at it again,_ and Piper smiled. Percy had ordered a blue popsicle, of course, and Jason and Piper were sharing a massive sundae. Annabeth almost wished she’d ordered that too, but she’d settled on a peanut butter bar that Leo had recommended. Percy was staying silent for the moment, letting Jason gleefully rip into him while he ate his popsicle. When Jason finally paused for breath, Percy opened his mouth and triumphantly sassed him right back, which caused everyone at the table to laugh. Percy’s lips were stained blue from the popsicle, and as Jason laughed, Annabeth read something in his eyes.

Then Jason leaned in and pecked Percy on the lips. Percy giggled, startled, and glanced at Annabeth, as if to ask, _What? What just happened?_ Jason was still smiling, but Annabeth saw a thousand emotions pass through his eyes. Annabeth locked eyes with Piper, who was having her own internal battle. Annabeth suspected she was thinking about how Jason never kissed her like that, all of a sudden, but then again, she never acted as derpily as Percy.

Thank the gods for Leo, who made some smart comment about Frank, as usual, who was all too ready to respond in good humor to ease the tension. Everyone jumped back into conversation. Piper smiled reassuringly at Annabeth, and Percy bravely continued talking to Jason as if nothing weird had happened, and Jason started to relax when he realized that he wasn’t going to be murdered by his girlfriend, Percy, or _his_ girlfriend.

Annabeth understood. Of course she did; she was Annabeth. Percy and Jason weren’t about to profess their undying love for each other and they certainly were still madly in love with her and Piper, if Jason’s current flirting was anything to go by. Annabeth smiled at Percy as he took her hand across the table. Percy and Jason were just incredibly good friends, and more than a little unusual, but that was okay. Annabeth bit into her peanut butter bar and conceded that maybe she and Piper would never quite figure out what was going on in their heads. She supposed she couldn’t know everything, though. She smiled at Percy.

 

Percy was lying on the deck of the _Argo II_. It was midafternoon, and scorchingly hot. Most of the others were in their rooms, hiding from the sun, but Percy was trying to catch the gusts of wind that blew past as the ship sailed along in the sky. Annabeth was gallantly manning the controls (she was pretty sure she was doing things right) and trying to get Daedalus’s laptop to sync with Archimedes’s sphere. The two were mostly silent, too lethargic to speak.

Jason climbed up on deck from below and crossed the deck to sit next to Percy’s prone form. Annabeth couldn’t hear what they were saying, but when she glanced over, they were kissing. Actual kissing. Jason was leaning over Percy, and they were still teasing each other and giggling, but they were legitimately making out.

Annabeth scooted nearer to the side rail and reached through it to rap the side of the ship below. She waited for a moment, then Piper’s head popped out a window and looked up at her.

“They’re really kissing now. Like, really real kissing,” Annabeth called down to her, maybe more calmly than she felt. She hoped the sound of the rushing wind would cover her voice for Percy and Jason.

Piper looked up at her. “Should we be considering this a problem?” she asked.

Annabeth had been hoping that Piper would have the answer to that question. “Do _you_ have a problem with it?” she asked.

Piper considered her for a moment. “Well, a little bit, but also not really, which is kind of weird. Shouldn’t we have a problem with this?”

“I mean, I guess,” Annabeth responded. “Why _don’t_ we have a problem with it?”

Jason and Percy were still near the trapdoor, but they were glancing at Annabeth now and having their own conversation. Annabeth sighed and looked down at Piper again, saying, “They’ve noticed us. Piper, just come on up.”

Her head disappeared back into her window. Percy and Jason watched Annabeth carefully.

Soon enough, Piper emerged on deck right next to the boys. Jason jerked a little in surprise, but Percy only glanced at her. Annabeth set Festus to autopilot, hoping nothing would go wrong, and joined the rest of them.

“Uh…” Annabeth started. “Is this…a problem?” _Wow, great confidence._

“Is…it…?” Percy mumbled. He was never good at answering questions.

“I mean…” Jason tried. “I don’t want it to be a problem, but if it is a problem then we can stop or talk about it or something…”

Annabeth tugged at the hem of her shirt. “I think that it should be a problem, but I don’t feel like it’s a problem. Piper?”

“Yeah,” Piper said. “That’s weird.”

“We’re pretty weird, considering.” Percy said. “Everything.”

“Mm-hmm,” Annabeth said. “Do you think this might be something we just pretend is not a problem until it becomes a problem?”

“A huge, messy, unavoidable problem?” Piper said. “My favorite.”

“I’m not…threatening you, am I?” Jason asked.

“Not really,” Annabeth said. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, though.”

“Eh,” said Percy.

“Thanks for adding to this conversation,” Annabeth said.

“Piper?” Jason asked.

“…Eh,” said Piper.

Annabeth could tell none of them were really sure about this. “Maybe…we’ll talk about this later…when it’s not so hot.”

“Okay,” said Piper.

“Okay,” said Percy.

“Okay,” said Jason.

_Holy Hera._

 

Annabeth had a plan. Of course she did. So she left a note on Piper’s, Jason’s, and Percy’s rooms to meet in the mess hall at midnight; hopefully everyone else would be at least in their rooms by then. At 11:45, Annabeth swung by Percy’s room to make sure he hadn’t forgotten, but he told her he’d be right there.

They all assembled around the table, Annabeth at the head. She set Daedalus’s laptop down and turned to the “windows” of Camp Half-Blood. She promptly pulled a curtain over one panel, right behind the head of the table.

She turned back to the others and flipped open the laptop. She took a deep breath.

“You guys know me. If there’s some question I can’t answer, I research it. It might not necessarily be the best approach, but it works most of the time, or at least helps. And after I research, I synthesize my findings. So…I’ve made a PowerPoint.”

“Daedalus’s laptop has PowerPoint?” Jason asked.

“I had to download the latest version, but yeah,” said Annabeth. She reached under the table and pulled out a remote. A few presses got a projector to descend from the ceiling and focus on the curtain. Annabeth fiddled with the laptop, and in a moment a slide appeared behind her.

“Types of attraction,” Annabeth said. “It’s not exactly the most streamlined classification, but it’ll do. Let’s skip sexual attraction for now.”

Everyone’s faces morphed into relieved expressions. Annabeth found the pointer light on the remote and focused it on the next bullet.

“Romantic attraction. Pretty self-explanatory. Then there’s emotional attraction, which is being attracted to someone’s personality, I think. Aesthetic attraction is appreciating someone’s beauty. Sensual attraction is wanting to be physically close with someone without being sexual. There might be more as well.

“So here’s what I think. I think there are a few different types of attraction floating around here. Piper and Jason have romantic attraction for each other, and Percy and I have romantic attraction for each other. We all have emotional attraction for one another; it’s the most common form of attraction in any relationship. Maybe Jason and Percy have a lot of emotional attraction for each other. Maybe it’s a more general physical attraction. Maybe it’s sensual. The point is, I don’t think it’s romantic. Right?”

Percy nodded dutifully, and Jason did as well after consideration.

“So whatever all of this is, all the relationships are valid and none of them necessarily overlap or infringe on one another. Horrible things won’t necessarily happen. And if they do, then I’ll look into polyamory, but I’m hoping we won’t have to get into that, for the sake of simplicity.”

“I mean,” said Jason, “I’m not about to start dating Percy. What would we even do?”

“That’d be really weird,” Percy said. “We could…kiss?”

“Kiss? On a date?” Jason asked dubiously.

“We kiss on our dates,” Piper said.

“Yeah, but that makes sense,” Jason said.

“Why do you guys kiss?” Annabeth asked Percy.

“Because…it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside?”

“Why do you kiss me?” Annabeth continued.

Percy’s face grew red. “Because you’re pretty and smart and awesome and I want to? In my gut. I think.”

“Thanks, Seaweed Brain, I really appreciate that.”

Percy relaxed. “Oh good.”

“I think we’ve established that they definitely don’t have a romantic connection,” Piper said. “So…they’re not-romantic kissing.”

“Platonic kissing?” Annabeth said.

“Really intense platonic kissing?” Piper said.

“Wait. Wait. This isn’t that thing like with Achilles and Patroclus, is it?” said Annabeth.

“Achilles and who?” Percy asked.

“Patroclus. They were cousins,” Jason said. “Achilles was being stubborn during the Trojan War and he wouldn’t fight, so Patroclus went to fight disguised as him. But Patroclus was really inexperienced and he died, and Achilles was so mad that he killed his killer and dragged the body around on the back of his chariot. It was really dramatic.”

“So you’d drag my killer’s body around?” Percy asked.

“Maybe?” Jason said. “I’d at least get revenge.”

“I’d probably do the dragging thing,” Percy said.

“Lovely,” said Annabeth. “I’m exhausted. I think we’ve figured out all that we can for now. Agreed?”

“Yeah,” said Piper. “Things seem a little clearer. Thanks, Annabeth.”

Annabeth nodded. “Jason? Percy?”

They nodded.

“Okay,” Annabeth said. “Bedtime. If anything horrible happens, we’ll figure it out then, but I think we’re good for now.”

 

There’s a surprise. It comes in the form of Nico di Angelo.

Things had happened, sure they had, and Nico deserved their time as much as anyone did. More, even. But there wasn’t a chance to contemplate him, since he was gone right after the war and didn’t come back until the week before the Autumn Equinox. And there he was, and she’d be damned if she wasn’t impressed. He’d asked them all to meet in his cabin (renovated, thankfully, with Leo’s help) and told them straight out that he was gay, and that if there was a problem then they were free to leave. None of them cared, of course, and they all said so loudly; Annabeth could’ve sworn she saw Reyna and Frank wiping away happy tears out of the corner of her eye.

Life settled down after that, for the most part; the Autumn Equinox celebrations came and went, and the night before they all had to go back to their mortal schools Percy pulled her out of her cabin into his and confessed that Nico used to have a crush on him and now he was feeling severely guilty and would she mind terribly if he tried to figure all that out first? And Annabeth said of course; Percy certainly wasn’t in love with Nico and Nico deserved to be okay. So she rarely spoke to Percy until Christmas break.

And then there was Christmas break. Everyone descended onto Camp Jupiter for Winter Solstice. And there was Nico, nestled between Percy and Jason at the campfire.

“I don’t really know what’s going on, honestly,” Percy whispered to Annabeth that night in the guest bunks. She leaned over the edge of the top bunk to look below at him. “I like you, and I like Jason and Nico, but I like them differently and it’s _weird_ and I don’t get it but I kind of don’t want to bother figuring it out. What do you think?”

“You’ve got good instincts, Percy,” Annabeth said. “I don’t get it either, and I can’t promise that this will all work out, but how bad can a handful of complicated relationships be, in comparison to Kronos, and Gaea, and Zeus…”

Thunder rumbled from above.

“Sorry, Zeus,” Annabeth whispered. “But you know you love drama.”

The thunder that followed sounded a little resigned.

Percy smiled. “I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too,” Annabeth said. It was easy.

 

The New Year brought a vomit-inducing flight to New York to spend time with Sally and Paul. The merry cohort included Percy, of course, Annabeth, Jason, Nico, Hazel, and Leo. She and Hazel joked that they were separated in age by four boys and tried not to puke on each other. But they didn’t crash and die, probably because Jason was on board, and Sally and Paul met them at JFK. 

The party lasted until well past midnight, and finally the kids all slipped into unconsciousness, wrapped up in sleeping bags on the floor. Annabeth and Nico curled up next to each other, and it was nice. It made Annabeth feel like crying, but she didn’t know why.

 

_Nico woke up before anyone else, head pillowed on Annabeth’s arm. He probably ought to move off, but he was too comfortable._

_Beside him, Annabeth shifted awake. “Good morning,” she mumbled._

_“Good morning,” Nico said back, a little shyly._

_Annabeth shifted a little so that she could turn her head to look around them. The rest of their friends were similarly curled up together, all in a hodge-podge; Hazel and Jason were back-to-back and Leo was on Percy’s arm just as he was on Annabeth’s._

_“We’re strange,” Annabeth said, almost in awe._

_“Yeah,” said Nico._

 

All Annabeth knew was that she loved them all. That was good enough.

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, PLOT HOLE: the kids finish the quest, and then suddenly they’re back on the Argo II. Why? Beats me. Damage control after Gaea?   
> Title is an unnecessarily pretentious reference taken from Dostoyevsky's "Notes from the Underground," where the narrator talks about humans being irrational and not at all like rational organ-stops. I'm sorry.   
> This story became WAY longer than I expected it to be. I started writing this thinking it’d be a funny little queerplatonic fluff piece, but then it turned into this giant queerplatonic mass of queerplatonicness…I started shooting at the hip near the end, and I have no idea how this turned out the way it did. But eh.   
> Types of attraction? Psychological blah blah blah? I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but if this situation were to ever happen with my friends and I, I’d probably say exactly what Annabeth said up there.


End file.
